This invention relates to electrical junction boxes and specifically to a siding box assembly for simplifying the task of mounting a light fixture on the exterior of a building.
Many homeowners find it desirable to improve the attractiveness and nighttime visibility around their homes by installing exterior lighting fixtures. Many of these are mounted directly to the outside surface of the house. Several prior art enclosures are available for accommodating exterior wall-mounted electrical fixtures. These commonly feature several separate configurations to accommodate various types of electrical devices, such as light fixtures, duplex receptacles, or switches.
Modern construction techniques typically increase the complexity of mounting exterior electrical fixtures. The exterior surface of a home may typically include irregular shaped surfaces, such as lapped siding, which does not present the desired flat surface for accommodating a typically box-shaped mounting block. For some exterior finishes, such as those with stucco finishes, the substrate beneath the stucco may consist of a sheet structure such as Celotex(copyright), a foam board that does not have the structural integrity to accept fasteners.
To simplify the task of installing an electrical fixture on the exterior of a building, the present inventor has provided several siding boxes. U.S. Pat. No. 5,804,764 to Gretz (hereinafter the ""764 patent), for example, provided a two-piece siding box and cover assembly that included an UL-listed (Underwriters Labs) electrical junction box for housing electrical connections. The box included a breakaway rear flange. For mounting on an unfinished exterior surface, the rear flange could be retained and mounted on the wall. The exterior finish, such as lapped siding, could then be laid overtop the flange. Alternatively, for mounting on a finished house, a hole could be cut in the lapped siding, the breakaway rear flange on the box removed, and the box mounted within the newly created hole to the substrate. Unfortunately, for those situations in which the substrate cannot accept fasteners, the mounting block of the ""764 patent was not entirely acceptable, as it forced homeowners to locate the box over a stud.
To provide more utility for mounting electrical fixtures to the exterior of a building, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,051,786 and 6,239,368 (hereinafter the ""786 and ""368 patents) to Gretz provided a two-piece siding box having a rear edge conforming to the profile of lapped siding to which it may be attached. This siding box enabled easy installation by simply laying the rear edge over the lapped siding and driving fasteners directly into the siding.
Although the ""786 and ""368 patents simplified the task of mounting electrical fixtures to an exterior surface having lapped siding, the numerous styles of lapped siding available made it necessary to provide several mounting blocks with various rear edge geometries to accommodate the various lapped siding styles. In addition, the mounting block was not universal in that it was not easily used on flat surfaces.
Another drawback with the mounting block of the ""764, ""786, and ""368 patents was the fact that the mounting blocks and associated covers had straight edges, necessitating that the straight edge of the cover be carefully lined up with the edge of the lapped siding to create an attractive finished installation. For those installations in which a hole was cut in the siding to expose the substrate, it became imperative for the homeowner to mark and cut very accurately to insure that the installed box and cover were lined up correctly with the siding.
Therefore, as can be seen from the above discussion, prior art siding boxes suffer several disadvantages when used on surfaces having lapped siding or a weak underlying substrate, such as foam board. When the siding were removed for direct mounting to the substrate, it was difficult to cut an appropriate hole and align it exactly with the siding. When the siding was retained, it was imperative to obtain a mounting block with a rear edge with the proper geometry conforming to the geometry of the actual siding it was mounted against.
The invention is a siding block including an electrical junction box and a cover for mounting a light fixture to the exterior of a building. The electrical junction box includes a back wall, a front peripheral wall, and a recessed area within the back wall having one or more removable wall sections within the recessed area. One or more of the removable wall sections can be removed and an electrical cable connector inserted therein to provide strain relief attachment of an electrical cable therein. The electrical junction box includes two or more posts integral with and extending from the front peripheral wall and including fastener-accepting portions. The cover includes a central opening and a rear peripheral wall surrounding the central opening. The rear peripheral wall of the cover is adapted to slidingly engage the front peripheral wall of the electrical junction box in such a manner that the fastener accepting portions of the posts are situated within the rear peripheral wall of the cover when the cover and the electrical junction box are slidingly engaged.
The siding box assembly of the present invention provides an electrical junction box that is UL-listed to meet the requirements of the electrical code. It has the advantage of working on all siding types and can be installed before or after the siding is installed.
By providing an electrical box in a circular shape, the siding box assembly of the present invention greatly simplifies the task of installing a light fixture on the exterior of a building. Prior art siding boxes are typically rectangular, thereby requiring the installer to properly orient the straight edges of the rectangular box with the siding of the house. Properly aligning a rectangular box consumes time. By providing a circular box and cover, the requirement to align edges is eliminated. Additionally, the box is provided in a size for which a the mounting location can be prepared by using a simple hole saw, instead of the complex cuts required by a rectangular mount. Thus, site preparation is vastly simpler thereby making installation fast and easy.
The siding box assembly also eases installation by including a non-metallic (NM) cable connector in a recessed area in the back side of the junction box. An electrical cable can therefore be easily fed through the cable connector to provide electrical supply to the junction box.
The design of the siding box assembly allows the electrical box, cover, and NM cable connector to be produced by injection molding of plastics. This reduces production expense and thereby allows economical production of the siding box assembly.
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will be better understood by reading the following description along with reference to the drawings.